The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #3)

by Megan Whalen Turner

Ornon had the greatest respect for the Thief of Eddis, much the way he respected the business edge of a sword.

There were only the roofs of the lower part of the palace and the town and the city walls. Beyond those were the hills on the far side of the Tustis Valley and the faded blue sky above them. It wasn’t what the king saw that was important, it was what he couldn’t see when he sat at the window with his face turned toward Eddis.

He lifted the amphora he held in his hand. “While I am celebrating, you can drown your sorrows,” he told Costis.

The king’s attendants remained, digesting the fact that their helpless, inept king had promised his wife to destroy the house of Erondites in six months and had done it in ninety-eight days.